Fox of Tao
by Metalingus
Summary: A teen recieves a digimon as a bodyguard against a host of others who want him dead. Why? Read!rn(Chapter 3 Up)
1. Beginning

**Fox of Tao**

_By: Metallingus_

Disclaimer – I don't own Digimon, as much as I would like to. Hell, if I did, I'd own every episode there is. Locations described in this story are probably based on either places I've been to or I've seen. Furthermore…screw it. I just don't own ANYTHING. Maybe Arc. MAYBE.

--

A teenager sits at his computer, resting his head in one hand. He takes a quick look at the little box in the corner of his screen, telling him the temperature and weather; apparently, it was storming out. He turns around in his chair, looking out the window on the far side of the small living room. He did so just in time to see lightning strike his driveway, coaxing a jump out of him. He looks back to the computer, and growls.

"Connection broken…" He bangs his head against the computer desk a few times, his black toque falling off and letting his rather warped blue-tinted hair fall free. He reaches up with one hand, clicking the 'Reconnect' button without looking up. When he didn't hear the expected Internet screeching sound, he looked up to the same message. "Damn it!"

He slams his fist against the computer desk. He must have forgotten that it was steel, but the shooting pain reminded him well enough. He grabs his hat and replaces it on his head, deciding that a drink would clear his head. He takes off down the stairs, halfway down sliding down the banister. He was home alone for the moment, and under his rule, sliding down banisters is fine; as long as no one could tell him otherwise, that is.

Arc walks over to the fridge, passing a hall on the way there. He jerks it open and takes a look around…nothing of interest in there. Healthy stuff. He closes it and moves back towards the stairs, this time heading down the hallway, taking a right and into the garage. The large area that usually held the family car – it was actually a SUV, but that doesn't particularly matter – was empty, leaving quite some room to move around. Spotting the other fridge, he moved over to it, jerking that one open as well. Why all the fridges in the house seemed to be stubborn was beyond his reasoning.

The dark look on the teen's face brightened as he looked inside, the bulb flickering, but the contents were visible: Four cases of coke, two tubs of ice cream, and a small note telling him not to eat too much junk. He grabs two cokes, and slams the fridge shut, exiting the garage. He walks by some stairs, that lead down to the basement…there was another flash of light. He dismissed it as lightning, and kept going. Arc hops up to where the stairs begin…when he hears something crash, and a soft curse.

Arc turns around slowly, and starts back towards the garage, turning down the steps to the basement. "…Anyone down there?" He gets no response, so he turns on the light. It flickers a few times, and then shorts out. "Why does all of my stuff have to short out so easy…?" He shakes his head, and moves down the stairs. It wasn't that it was dark, lightning struck every few moments, lighting the room well enough. He was a bit nervous about who, or what, could have made such a noise. He waits for a few moments for lightning, and then takes a quick look around before the light fades. He saw the box, and it's spilled contents. But if he hadn't knocked it over…who had?

The teen pushed the thoughts from his mind, picking up the box and cleaning the mess up. He nudges the box back over to the wall, and turns back to the stairs… in time to see a pair of black, clawed feet vanish from the top of the stairs. Arc stands where he is for several moments, trying to search his mind for any possibility of this being real. Finding nothing, though, he picks up a lead pipe that was nearby him, and headed up the stairs.

"Humans always have good food!" He hears a childish-sounding voice saying, and the soft hum of the larger fridge. Arc twirls the pipe in his hand a bit, moving around the corner to see who it is. He quickly jerks it right back behind the corner, though, a large fireball charring the place where his head just was. The fridge slams shut, and he hears the creature coming towards him. Arc grips the metal pole tensely, waiting for a demonic head to swivel around the corner and deep-fry him.

That moment never comes, though, as he hears glass shatter, and a confused sound from his assailant. "_Diamond Storm!_" A second voice rings out, as well as several small 'thuds'…then complete silence. Arc makes no effort to break such a silence, clutching his lead pipe even tighter. Soft footfalls. "…Arc?"

The teen blinks, and stays exactly where he is. "How do you know my name?" His voice was a bit squeaky, but still rather low. He moves a bit closer to the corner, his vision filled with a yellow furry face. It's fairly smug.

"I've been assigned to protect you." The yellow furred creature moves around the corner, and folds her arms against her chest. Arc suddenly recognizes her as a Renamon, from his several hours of relentless TV watching. How she came into existence was beyond his comprehension. She seems to be studying him, as well, removing the toque from his head with two digits, seeming to smile a bit.

It takes him several moments, but the teen eventually notices her other paw closed around something. When the fox notices where his eyes are, she opens it, showing him a rolled up sheet of paper. "It's your information." She explains, unrolling it. She says the usual stuff, like his name, age, birthday, and other things. Then she moves onto the more obscure things about him… he stops her when she gets to his more secret things by snatching the paper from her. "…Be that way. I have already read it."

Arc takes his toque back as well, pulling it down over his face slightly as to almost cover his eyes. "Err…yeah. What do you mean, you were assigned to protect me?" He tries to change the topic swiftly.

The fox shakes her head a bit. "I meant exactly what I said." While talking, she adjusts her gloves slightly. "And I'm going to have to stay around here for a while." She leans back on the banister, looking upstairs.

Arc blinks a bit, several rejections suddenly popping up. "My parents will be back in a few hours, where am I going to hide you?" Seeing as that was the most urgent reason, he chose that one.

It only gets a smirk and a shrug out of the Renamon. "You're a smart kid, you figure it out. I'll teleport onto the roof if it gets too close. An assassin, though, might be a bit more interesting."

He had forgotten about why he would need to be protected, and it shut Arc up quickly. "O-one more thing. What should I call you?'

This question was expected by the Digimon, but not all that easy to answer. "Call me whatever you want."

"Well, what's your name?"

The fox spins a bit, and starts up the stairs. "Dynasty." She vanishes up the stairs, Arc following close behind her. She walks right into his room, and looks around. She picks a spot under his bed, sliding under rather easily.

Arc slowly moves onto the top of the bed, takes a pillow off of the head of the bed, and holds it underneath. "Here."

The pillow is softly taken from his grasp. "Thank you. Now sleep, you need your energy." Arc slips under the covers, and eventually gets to sleep…it takes Dynasty quite some time afterward, though. "…Tomorrow, we switch."

--

_End chapter one._


	2. Understanding

**Fox of Tao**

(Chapter 2.)

_By Metallingus_

Author's Note: (Annoying PA Voice) I made the decision to switch views from 3rd person to 1st person, unless there's a fight going on, in which case it's back to 3rd temporarily. That is all.

--

_It's light out...but I can hardly see. The glowing is too intense. I look to the sides...no one is there. I try to run away from the light, but my legs refuse to move. It begins to get hot...very hot. I can almost feel my skin peeling from my bones and- a loud beeping sound. Beep. Beep. Beep._

Beep. Beep. Beep.

I reached out with one hand, brang it crashing down on the little clock radio. Of all the buttons I pressed in doing that, Snooze didn't happen to be one of them.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

I sighed in defeat, finally sitting up and pressing the button properly...by unplugging the radio, and shoving it under my bed. The events from the night before came flooding back to me, as if it were a movie being played in Fast Forward. Everything was so vivid.. but in my mind I knew there were no such things as fridge-raiding fireball monsters or fox guardians. It just didn't make any sense. I flopped back down onto the bed, arm hanging limp over the side.

"Just not possible," I repeated to myself, but the images of the night before lingered with me. It really didn't help his reasoning when the clock radio was pushed back into his hand. I muttered a thank you, placing the device back onto my nightstand...then it hit me. I looked down and under my head, and found a yellow furry face glaring at me.

"Useless human device." It was a feminine voice, I realized. She tilted her head a bit. "What are you staring at?" I blinked a few times, and pulled my head back up over the side. I was still in my clothes from the night before, black t-shirt, baggy jeans and toque. Many thoughts raced through my head at that moment, them once again interrupted by the fox...Dynasty, I remembered. "Well, are you going to help me out of here or not?"

It took me a while to actually get up off the bed, lifting up the side a bit so she could slide out. She looked as if she were going to say something...most likely a complaint... instead bringing her tail up in front of her, a small Renamon plush in tow. I quickly accepted it, and held it behind my back. "...How you got that is none of my business." She walked past me, and opened the door, walking outside. I remembered that my parents _were_ home! "...Dammit!" I quickly jump over my bed, and towards the door...to see my mom right in front of me.

"Arc! I told you, never use language like that!" She grabbed my chin, a stern look on her face that may have had to be surgically removed. "EVER!" I nod, apologize, compliment... the same deal for pretty much every time I'm in trouble. The moment she walks away, though, I look towards the window...and see Dynasty smirking at me from outside. I look towards where my mom went, then back at her...and she was gone.

"...Ugh..." My mother passed me by again, quickly moving down the stairs. She had her purse; which meant one thing.

"Arc, I'm going out with your father."

"At.." I checked the time on the clock that hung off the wall, "10 AM?"

"I think I'm old enough to choose when I want to go out, thankyouverymuch." She gave me another glare, and walked through the door, fuming like she usually was. I looked up, expecting Dynasty to be leaning against the guardrail on the other side...and I was wrong. She was beside me.

"Come. I'm hungry." She jumped off the banister, landing on the bottom stair... she took a few seconds to see if she had broken the stair, then moving off into the kitchen. I followed after her with haste, hoping desperately that she wasn't going to rip the kitchen apart looking. I didn't know if it was a 'thankfully' thing or a 'unfortunately' thing, but she was pulled right up to the dinner table, paws folded. I opened my mouth to say something, but hsook it off and walked towards the breadbox.

"Y'know, you could have made yourself something. There's turkey in the fridge." I pulled out a few pieces of bread, then went into the fridge to get said turkey.

"I could have. But, one way or another, I am a guest. If you were staying in my home, I would serve you." She tapped two digits on the table impatiently.

I didn't really have an answer for this, so I just kept working. I put some of the turkey on a piece of bread, put another piece of bread onto that, put the sandwhich on a plate and handed it to her. She smirked a bit at me and started eating. "Good?"

She swallowed, and shrugged. "It will do." She took another bite, looking around slightly. This was as good a time as ever, I thought, and took a seat beside her. She saw, and quickly swallowed.

"You...were assigned to protect me, right?" She nodded, and pushed the plate away from her. It seemed she knew I was going to question her at some point down the road. "Why do I need protecting?"

She adjusted her large purple gloves slightly as she spoke, not maintaining eye contact with me. "You saw the digimon last night, correct?" I shook my head, making her sigh a bit in annoyance. "That was a mercenary of the Darkitsu clan." Before I could ask, she raised a paw. "The bad guys. That's all you need to know." I nodded, and let her go on. "I don't know why I need to protect you, but apparently it's what I was created to do." She pulls her glove down a bit, showing somewhat of a fox-head tattoo.

"Well, how did you know where I lived?" Only seconds after I asked the question, I knew the answer. I reached into my pocket, and pulled out the weathered piece of paper. "Alright, forget that question." She smirked, and leaned back. "Created by who?"

This one caught her offguard. She blinked a few times, and waved her paw. "Pass."

"H-hey..." I stumbled over that word a bit.

"I don't know everything, Arc." Once again, she shut me up quite well. I got up, and walked back towards the fridge. I felt her paw on my shoulder. "I'm afraid you don't have time for a meal. We have to go." I slowly turned around, and got stopped again by her other paw. "You don't have to walk."

I looked up at her quizzically. "Why's--" Suddenly, a bright light flashed, like a camera. Except when the light faded, it was a bit different. This was not my home.

--

End chapter 2.


	3. Chapter 3 Name in progress

**Fox of Tao**

_(Chapter 3)_

Author's Note: Hm..Not really much of one...the speed of chapters might slow down a bit due to school.

--

_This was not my home._

That was pretty obvious...my home didn't exactly have digimon walking around. Dynasty noticed the confused and slightly dazed look I was wearing, and smirked arrogantly.

"Follow me, and don't give anyone any looks, like the one you're giving me right now." I quickly changed my expression to a blank one. This apparently was fine with her, as she gave a nod and walked off in the direction where no one else seemed to be going. I stood still for a few moments, letting the place sink in...and was greeted by an annoyed sigh and a paw clamping over my shoulder. "Today, Arc."

"Huh? R-right." She pulled me by my shoulder in front of her, and started pushing every time I stopped moving for even a moment. 'She's a charmer,' I thought. This was greeted with an elbow to the back. "Ow! What was that for?" I turned around to face her.

She wasn't even facing me. The fox digimon was turned around, the elbow apparently to get my attention. There was a black cat-looking creature... he recognized it, but a name didn't come to mind. It's eyes quickly switched from Dynasty to me, grinning smugly.

"Weeell, what _do_ we have here?" Unlike the Renamon, this one seemed entirely calm. It was unnerving.

Dynasty growled at me when I moved closer, pushing me back with her bushy yellow tail. "Nothing of yours, Gatomon. Do yourself a favor and go get a _real _job."

"Why, I would...but assassin just fits me so...purrrrrfectly." Gatomon paused a bit, trying to look around Dynasty and at me. "Aw, I can't play with the human?"

I tried to get closer again, but was once again pushed back by her tail. "No chance, cat. We have things to do, and being deleted just doesn't happen to be one of them. Diamond Storm!" She crosses her arms over her chest, then quickly jerks them back, sending a spray of light shards at the assassin cat.

I move to the side again, out of the range of her tail...in time to see the Gatomon spin through the barrage, deflecting one or two shards with her claws. Both of them tore right through the spot where my head and chest just were. "Drat, you missed." She shrugged, and reared a paw back. "Lightning Paw!" The cat quickly uppercuts Dynasty, sending her up and backwards.

"Dynasty!" I went to dive to catch her. But she saw me coming, and teleported behind Gatomon, kicking her aside with a footpad around the size of the cat's chest.

"I'm fine, Arc! Just stay away from her!" The cat crashed into some neatly stacked boxes, tearing a hole through them. She busted all of them, though, her claws glowing, coming right for...me! I heard Dynasty curse, and try to rush over...she'd be too slow.

"Time to die, human! Lightning Paw!" Her claws glowed more brilliantly, and she rears one back...I ducked to try to avoid her, but she didn't quite get that far. Several diamond-sized light shards hit her, blasting her back and having her land a while away from me. Dynasty ran over to me, picking me up.

"Are you alright?" She wasn't as much concerned as desperate. I nodded, and she set up for another Diamond Storm. "Keep behind me, I'm finishing this."

"'The hell you are, fox!" The assassin was up again, and was regaining her breath.

Dynasty smirked at her, and jumped into the air. "Just DELETE, damn it! Diamond Storm!" More diamond-sized light shards rained down on the cat, tearing through it. Instead of bleeding like I expected it would, Gatomon just started evaporating. The Renamon landed a few moments later, and leaned against me. "We...have to...be faster," She panted, and pushed me along. Throughout the entire thing, though, not a creature intervened. They simply let them have some room.

--

It took around half an hour to get to a run-down looking pub...half of that for Dynasty to get her energy back. I had waited for such to ask her. "What was that about?"

"That, Arc, was a failed assassination." She stated, and started down the stairs to the pub door.

I followed after her, not wanting to let her dodge the topic so easily. "So they just show up, just like that?"

She stopped at the door, looked around, then nodded. "Not all of them are going to be much of a doofus as the one that raided your fridge, Arc. You were lucky this time, picked the right time to move out of the way. I really hope this guy can help us out."

I soaked all of that in...and was grabbed again by the shoulder, and pushed through the pub door. "You could just say 'go' or something.." I trailed off, and only got a shrug and another push. When I looked around, it was nothing like a pub...we were the only ones in there, except for a bug behind the desk that looked like it could withstand a can of Raid.

"Kabuterimon." Dynasty nodded to the bug, who nodded back. "You know what I need."

The bug nods, and reaches down with two of his four arms. "What, not even a hello?"

"You know me better than that."

"True. So..." He looked at me...at least I think he did, I could hardly see past the metal plating on his head. "This the human I've heard so much about?"

Dynasty nodded. "If by 'so much' you mean 'talked about once, briefly', then yes." For some reason, I was feeling somewhat left out of this conversation.

"Well, you're a mon of few words." He pulls a box out of the counter, and tosses it to Dynasty. "There ya go."

Dynasty opened it for a few moments, shut it and nodded. "Thank you, Kabu. I knew I could count on you." She smirked again...And I started to wonder if she ever smiled.

The bug chuckled softly. "What can I say, I'm the reliable type. Now get on out of here, it's almost closing."

The Renamon nodded, and wrapped her yellow tail around my stomach. "Later." The same bright light flashed, filling my vision...and we were suddenly back to my kitchen.

I waved my hand in front of my face, trying to focus on it. "Well, what is it?" She gave me a quick look, somewhat of a confused glare.

"What is what?"

"The box. What's in it?"

Dynasty blinked a few times, then quickly answered. "A less annoying clock."

I could tell she was lying, but didn't want to go into it. She threw me the box, and sat down at her sandwich, taking another bite...it hadn't moved or done anything during the time we were gone. I opened the box, and looked inside...the device had a clock on it, but also many other things that he didn't understand. He took it out, and used the clip to hook it onto his belt. "Alright, other than that."

The fox finished off her sandwich, and looked at the front door...my parents were back. "It's a D-Arc....no relation to your name. That's all you need to know... now go sort out your cards." She vanishes just as the door opens.

"Who are you talking to?" My mother said, taking off her coat.

"Er...no one." I took off for my room, not saying a word of greeting.

--

End chapter 3.


End file.
